CD-adapco
Encyclopedia
CD-adapco is a multinational computer software
company that authors and distributes applications used for computer-aided engineering
, best known for its computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
products.
In their 2009 annual user conference, CD-adapco announced that the company had grown 22% in 2008, and they expected similar results in 2009. Professional Engineering Magazine described this as "recession-proof performance" and went on to point out that this success is especially noteworthy considering that many of the company's customers are in the automotive industry, a sector of the economy that was, at the time, suffering record low sales levels. During the financial downturn of 2009, CD-adapco launched their "No Engineer Left Behind" program, which provided free STAR-CCM+ licenses and training for displaced and unemployed engineers.
automotive design engineers as a "world class design package". Nearly 75% of the points won during the 2005 Formula One
season were awarded to drivers of cars that were designed with STAR-CD.
algorithms and tools. The company gambled that in the end, starting from a "blank slate" with a group of experts would produce a better result than continuing to work improvements into their old products In early 2004, the company introduced this new product, STAR-CCM+, the "CCM" standing for "computational continuum mechanics". The application employs a client-server architecture, to allow users to solve problems from a lightweight computer, such as a laptop, while the computationally expensive math is done on a remote machine. This substantially reduces the need for expensive desktop computers—a requirement of some other similar packages
Even in periods of major economic downturn, few customers cut back on annual licenses. CD-adapco has speculated that their product's success has been partially because their application was designed from the start to simultaneously solve fluid flow and heat transfer problems. Competing products are often a separate solvers coupled together, and conducting an analysis that involves both requires that both be kept in agreement; a time consuming complication that degrades accuracy.
-embedded tools that allows engineers to perform CFD
analysis from within their company's chosen CAD environment. STAR-CAD integrates with Catia
, Pro/Engineer
, SolidWorks
and NX
.
, CD-adapco developed an expert system
to model and analyze solid oxide fuel cells
algorithm. The use of a polyhedral mesh has proven to be more accurate for fluid-flow problems than a hexahedral or tetrahedral mesh of a similar size (number of cells), but is considerably more difficult to create.
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
company that authors and distributes applications used for computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
, best known for its computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
products.
In their 2009 annual user conference, CD-adapco announced that the company had grown 22% in 2008, and they expected similar results in 2009. Professional Engineering Magazine described this as "recession-proof performance" and went on to point out that this success is especially noteworthy considering that many of the company's customers are in the automotive industry, a sector of the economy that was, at the time, suffering record low sales levels. During the financial downturn of 2009, CD-adapco launched their "No Engineer Left Behind" program, which provided free STAR-CCM+ licenses and training for displaced and unemployed engineers.
Products
STAR-CD
CD-adapco's legacy CFD package, STAR-CD, was praised by RenaultRenault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
automotive design engineers as a "world class design package". Nearly 75% of the points won during the 2005 Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
season were awarded to drivers of cars that were designed with STAR-CD.
STAR-CCM+
In 2004, CD-adapco opted to shift their attention from improving STAR-CD to completely rewriting their computational fluid dynamics (CFD)Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
algorithms and tools. The company gambled that in the end, starting from a "blank slate" with a group of experts would produce a better result than continuing to work improvements into their old products In early 2004, the company introduced this new product, STAR-CCM+, the "CCM" standing for "computational continuum mechanics". The application employs a client-server architecture, to allow users to solve problems from a lightweight computer, such as a laptop, while the computationally expensive math is done on a remote machine. This substantially reduces the need for expensive desktop computers—a requirement of some other similar packages
Even in periods of major economic downturn, few customers cut back on annual licenses. CD-adapco has speculated that their product's success has been partially because their application was designed from the start to simultaneously solve fluid flow and heat transfer problems. Competing products are often a separate solvers coupled together, and conducting an analysis that involves both requires that both be kept in agreement; a time consuming complication that degrades accuracy.
STAR-CAD
STAR-CAD is a range of PLMProduct lifecycle management
In industry, product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal...
-embedded tools that allows engineers to perform CFD
Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
analysis from within their company's chosen CAD environment. STAR-CAD integrates with Catia
Catia
Catia may refer to*Catia - neighbourhood of Caracas*Catia La Mar - Venezuelan town*Catia - a family in Ancient Rome*Catia - type of butterfly*CATIA...
, Pro/Engineer
Pro/ENGINEER
Creo Elements/Pro, a product formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation . It was the first to market with parametric, feature-based, associative solid modeling software...
, SolidWorks
SolidWorks
SolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD program that runs on Microsoft Windows and is being developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, S. A. . SolidWorks is currently used by over 1.3 million engineers and designers at more than 130,000 companies worldwide...
and NX
NX
-Computing:* NX bit, a term for marking parts of computer memory as "no execute"* NX technology, a computer program that handles remote X Window System connections* NX , a CAD software product from Siemens PLM Software...
.
Fuel Cells
In a partnership with the United States Department of EnergyUnited States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
, CD-adapco developed an expert system
Expert system
In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning about knowledge, like an expert, and not by following the procedure of a developer as is the case in...
to model and analyze solid oxide fuel cells
Technology
Finite Element Meshing
The first "official release" of STAR-CCM+ included the world's first commercially available polyhedral meshingDiscretization
In mathematics, discretization concerns the process of transferring continuous models and equations into discrete counterparts. This process is usually carried out as a first step toward making them suitable for numerical evaluation and implementation on digital computers...
algorithm. The use of a polyhedral mesh has proven to be more accurate for fluid-flow problems than a hexahedral or tetrahedral mesh of a similar size (number of cells), but is considerably more difficult to create.
Automatic Surface Repair
Included in STAR-CCM+ is a tool called a "surface wrapper", which "shrink wraps" a user's CAD geometry, filling any holes, overlaps or cracks. The company says that this feature cuts geometry preparation time down from days to minutes.See also
- Computational fluid dynamicsComputational fluid dynamicsComputational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
- Finite element analysis
- Computer simulationComputer simulationA computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...
- Computer-aided designComputer-aided designComputer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
- Computer-aided engineeringComputer-aided engineeringComputer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
Related Software
- ANSYS CFX (proprietary software)
- ANSYS Fluent (proprietary software)
- Code SaturneCode SaturneCode_Saturne is a general purpose computational fluiddynamics free software. Developed since 1997 at EDF R&D, Code_Saturne is distributed under the GNU GPL licence....
(GPL) - OpenFOAMOpenFOAMOpenFOAM is a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, including computational fluid dynamics . The code is released as free and open source software under the GNU General Public License...
(GPL)